


Help Wanted

by TheArtisticIntrovert



Category: Five Nights at Freddy's, When We Hold A Grudge (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, and by that i mean that this takes place in nockfell but that's about it, don't get your hopes up the animatronics are still robots, hopefully a divergence from the tired 'x character becomes a fnaf nightguard' trope, max is my oc but i put the work he's from in the fandoms to hopefully give it some attention, situations and settings from sally face are mentioned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2019-10-29 23:51:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17817881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheArtisticIntrovert/pseuds/TheArtisticIntrovert
Summary: When Max applied to work at Freddy Fazbear's Family Pizzeria as the new mechanic, he didn't expect to be dealing with murderous robots on top of a poorly maintained restaurant. Hopefully, he can survive his first week.





	1. Night 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LunagaleMaster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LunagaleMaster/gifts).



> me: tyler don't start another self-indulgent fic you have too much stuff to focus on-  
> also me: sorry what i can't hear you over the sound of yet another fanfic  
> me: god _dammit_

There's not much to do in Nockfell, which unfortunately means there's not a whole lot of places to work, either. At least, not if you didn't want to be an altar boy at the Phelps Ministry. There was, however, one place that was perpetually hiring.

 

Freddy Fazbear's Family Pizzeria.

 

They were doing an overhaul of the entire staff lineup, after an....... _ unfortunate incident _ with one of the old employees. Luckily for Max, there was a position open for a mechanic.

 

Obviously, he applied. Materials weren't cheap, and if he had enough pockets he might be able to squirrel away some spare bits to tinker with. The manager, some uptight out-of-towner, was reluctant to hire him at first, but relented when presented with undeniable proof that Max actually knew what he was doing. Amazing how much people start to trust your mechanical expertise when presented with a prosthetic far beyond what was available on the current market.

 

So, his first day was a Monday. Apparently, he’d be working daily from about 12 to 6, but he had to come in early Monday to get situated and figure out what needed fixing, and what he actually  _ could  _ fix. Armed with his toolbox, a Ziploc full of suckers, and thick work gloves, he headed down to the pizzeria.

 

As soon as he arrived, he knew he had his work cut out for him. Inside the restaurant was absolutely sweltering, the scratchy singing of the band not quite enough to drown out the sound of the wheezing vents. The lights flickered periodically, and the machines all looked to be at  _ least  _ ten years old, if not more. He held back a sigh, fingers already itching to light a cigarette.

 

He was greeted at the door by a short, red-faced man with thinning blond hair. A faded plastic name tag declared him to be ‘Manager: Joey Brooks’. “I’m sorry young man, but we’re closing soon. Also, you can’t bring those in here,” he said in a reedy voice, gesturing towards the toolbox. Max raised an eyebrow, shifting slightly.

 

“It’d be a bit hard t’do my job without ‘em, don’t ya think?” he asked. The manager blinked, doing a double take. Max bit back another sigh, far too used to this. Sometimes, having a babyface  _ sucked.  _ “I’m Max Mohr, the new repairman. Yes, I know I look too young for this job. Yes, I’m really 17. Yes, I have identification,” he droned, rattling off his practically-memorized FAQ.  The manager still looked doubtful, so Max pulled out his driver’s license. He squinted at it for a minute, like he could somehow tell if it was fake, but eventually acquiesced. 

 

“Fine. Follow me,” he said curtly, jerking his head towards the “Employees Only” door. Max followed him to the back room, just barely keeping the disgusted sneer off his face. The back of the restaurant was arguably worse than the front, and  _ that _ was saying something. It was dark, with flickering light bulbs and ominous-looking metal doors on everything. The walls were dingy, covered in peeling wallpaper and dark stains, though the light wasn’t quite good enough to tell what they  _ were,  _ exactly. The whole area had a sort of musty smell to it, like it hadn’t been cleaned in a while.

 

Brooks led him to a room labeled “Parts & Service”, basically a tiny closet full of animatronic costumes and bare endoskeletons.  “This is where you’ll get all your supplies. If you need something extra, let me know, and give me any receipts, so I can reimburse you. Pretty much everything needs fixing, but I’d recommend staying away from the animatronics. After midnight, I’d recommend not wandering the halls. They’re set to free roam, and might see you as an intruder.” Max raised an eyebrow.

 

“Seems a little advanced for children’s birthday robots,” he said. Brooks shrugged. “Alright, whatever. Is there anyone else working at night, or just me?” he asked.

 

“There’s one other guy, a nightguard. Some college kid, Matt something. He’s gonna be staying in the guard office actually, the room with the monitors. It’s right at the end of this hall. If you need anything, tell him and he might be able to help. Kitchen food is off limits, but you can use the stove and microwave if you need to, just clean up after yourself. Any questions?” he asked. Max shook his head. Brooks nodded, leaving the supply room. “Awesome. I’m going home, Matt should be here in about half an hour. Good luck,” he said, waving lazily before disappearing into the darkness of the hall. Max groaned softly, rolling his eyes. 

 

“Yeah, later asshole....” he grunted. He sighed,  pulling his jacket off and tying it around his waist. The metal of his arm glinted in the low light from the hall, a dull shine reflecting off the eyes of one of the Bonnie heads. He flicked the light switch on, the dingy bulb sputtering to life, before grabbing his tools again. “First thing’s first; fix the damn A/C.”

 

\--

 

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been working on the A/C, but he was jolted out of his focus by the sound of loud cursing and a slamming door. Apparently, Matt had arrived at some point. He sounded pretty angry; bad night? Max shook his head, setting down his screwdriver. The A/C was nearly fixed anyway, he just had to replace the vent cover. Instead, he wiped the grease off of himself with a bandana hanging out of his pocket, jumping down from the table and poking his head out into the hallway.

 

Nothing. 

 

He frowned slightly, confused. Didn’t Brooks say that the animatronics were on free roaming mode? They weren’t anywhere in sight, though they really should’ve been. He groaned dramatically, before heading down the hallway to the guard’s office. He could at least ask the dude to keep it down.

 

As he approached the doors, he could hear more swearing, before a bright light flickered on. He instinctively raised his arm, blocking his eyes from the worst of it, before a door was slammed in his face. He scowled. Now that was just  _ rude. _

 

Max banged on the door with his fist, a loud clanging echoing through the hallway. Faintly, he heard someone shout  _ ‘go away!’ _ He rolled his eyes, peering through the window next to the door. A skinny white man with brown hair was in the office, eyes wide. The door slid open, and he slipped inside quickly, before it was shut in his face again.

 

“W-Who are you?” the man stuttered, looking scared out of his mind. Max raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

 

“I could ask you the same question, NG.” The man mouthed ‘NG?’ to himself, but didn’t interrupt. “I’m tryin’ to work here, can you keep it down?” he asked, words slightly slurred around the sucker in his mouth.

 

“Work? I thought I was the only one here?” the man said, confused now. His eyes were locked on Max, more specifically his arm. Max glanced down, before rolling his eyes.

 

“One; you’re not. I’m Max, the repair guy. Can’t remember your name right now, don’t actually give a shit. Two; yes, the arm’s metal. You want the story, pay me twenty bucks.” NG blinked, gaping like a fish. Max groaned, rolling his eyes again. “Just keep it down, would ya?” he snapped, before leaving the office again. Dude looked like he didn’t have two brain cells to rub together. And just what was all that screaming about, anyway?

 

He grumbled to himself the entire way back to the parts and service room, fingers almost twitching with the strong desire for nicotine. He checked the time on his watch, groaning when he realized it was only 4:30 am. He still had another hour and a half before he got off, and it was another fifteen minute walk back to Addison Apartments before he could sleep. He pulled his hat off, wiping at his sweaty curls with his flesh arm and twitching violently when the door slammed shut again. Max fought the urge to punch a hole in the drywall. The dust would just get into the cracks in his joints, and cause another problem for him to fix. 

 

Instead, he just clambered back up onto the table, screwing the vent cover back into the wall over the vent shaft. With that done, and with blessedly cool air blowing over his overheating skin, it was time to note down the other problems. Just as he pulled out a pad of paper and a pencil however, the lights completely shut off. Another piercing scream echoed down the hallway, followed closely by a haunting music box melody. 

 

This time, he gave into the urge, slamming his fist down on one of the tables, leaving a dent in the metal. He grabbed his toolbox and hat, shoving the latter down over his curls, and stormed down the hall. He was met with the hulking figure of Freddy Fazbear himself, barely visible in the dim light of the hallway. The door was open, but the office was just as dark as the parts and service room. It was eerily silent, the only sounds the whimpering of the night guard and the still-playing music box.

 

Max rolled his eyes, slapping his flesh palm over the shutdown switch on the back of Freddy’s neck. He wanted to shut the animatronic down, not  _ break  _ it. Immediately, the music box shut off, and the night guard screamed again. Max groaned loudly, massaging his temples with his free hand. “Oh my god would you  _ stop  _ **_screaming?!”_ ** he snapped. “The bear’s off, but hey, so are the lights, so do you wanna tell me what the  _ fuck  _ is going on in here?!” Max snarled, gesturing wildly at the room in general.

 

“W-What the hell do you mean ‘going on’?! Haven’t you noticed them trying to  _ kill me _ all night?!” NG snapped back, looking pale and shaken in the weak light from Max’s watch. Max raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.

 

“No, I’ve been a bit busy with my head in the vents,” he said sarcastically. Surprisingly, NG looked furious at that, actually stopping his shaking for more than a second.

 

“So  _ you’re  _ the one that made the power run out!” he snapped. Max blinked, absolutely confused at this point.

 

“Power? What does the power have to do with anything?” he asked. NG snarled, pulling himself up with the aid of the paper-covered desk.

 

“I’ve been rationing power all night, using the lights and doors sparingly, so they couldn’t get in and  _ stuff me in a suit!  _ Then you just fucked all that up by turning the A/C back on!” he snapped. Max groaned, dragging his hands down his face.

 

“Fuckin’ cheap-ass manager...” he grumbled. “Alright man, gimme like twenty and I’ll have that fixed. I’ll see if I can turn off the others on the way, aight? Just stay here.” He left through the East Hall, but stopped in the doorway, looking back. “And, by the way? Don’t go near Freddy. He may be off, but there’s something strange going on here, and I don’t want to take any chances until I have a look at him.”

 

With that, he headed down the hall to the dining area. Pots and pans were banging loudly from the kitchen, and he groaned softly to himself, knowing he was probably gonna get blamed for that. He carefully set his toolbox down by the door, creeping into the kitchen. Chica was standing at the counter, back to the door, with a dangling camera sparking ominously in front of her. He crept up slowly, careful not to make any noise. She stopped and he froze, hardly daring to breathe. Slowly, she glared around the room, before going back to messing with the pots. He didn’t dare let out a sigh of relief, instead darting up behind her and lunging for the button. He hit it hard, Chica almost immediately dropping like a puppet with the strings cut.

 

He let out a breath, massaging his chest to try to get his beating heart under control. “That was too close...” he muttered, tightening his jacket around his waist. If he lost it or it got damaged, no force on this earth would stop him from getting it back. It was all he had left of Callie, after all.

 

He shook off the memories threatening to overwhelm him, instead grabbing his tools again. He didn’t know where Bonnie was, and he could only hope that the rabbit was staying far away from the guard’s office. He didn’t hear any screaming, so he figured NG was safe for now. Still, he picked up the pace a bit, not wanting to waste time.

 

Weaving through the abandoned tables, he finally happened upon the door to backstage. Why it wasn’t connected to the supply closet he had no idea, probably something about safety. He shook his head sharply, pushing the door open and keeping an eye out for any murderous purple rabbits. As he slipped inside, he dug a small flashlight out of one of the pockets on his cargo pants, clicking it on and holding his breath as it sputtered to life. The light cast high shadows on the walls, just made more ominous by the multitude of children’s drawings adorning them. He swallowed heavily and started forward, gripping his toolbox so tightly that the handle creaked in warning.

 

Luckily, the fuse box wasn’t too far in. He set down the tools, prying open the cover. There had to be a reason that the power was fine during the day, and only ran out at night, right?

 

His eyes narrowed in triumph when he noticed a timer haphazardly put on the switch for the office. Apparently, it limited the power available for use, causing the addition of the A/C to trip the breaker. He dug his screwdriver under it, prying it off and flipping the switches again. The lights turned back on, and the A/C once more whirred to life. He nodded in satisfaction, closing the door and turning around, only to find himself face-to-chest with dingy purple fur. He looked up.......and up and up and up, finally meeting the eerie eyes of Bonnie. He swallowed nervously, glancing around the room for anything he could use.

 

“H-Hey.....nice rabbit.....” he whispered, sweating profusely. Bonnie just seemed to glare harder, if that was even possible. Max ducked around Bonnie, trying to get behind him. Faster than should’ve been possible, the rabbit whipped around, apparently realizing what he was trying to do. He swore violently, blocking the swipe that would’ve taken his head off with his left arm. He bit back a scream as the force tugged at his arm violently, nerves and attachment port protesting the sudden movement. Max wedged his screwdriver in between Bonnie’s wrist joints, causing the animatronic to howl in......frustration? Pain? Max shook it off and took the opportunity. While the robot was distracted by the screwdriver firmly lodged in its joints, Max launched himself at its neck, wrapping his good arm around it and slapping the button.

 

Bonnie’s head dropped, and Max let go, breathing harshly. He glared at the robot, retrieving his screwdriver and tools before gingerly making his way back to the office. Except, as he made his way down the hall, a clock chimed 6 am, coupled by the alarm on his watch. He groaned in exasperation and relief, looking forward to getting out of this place.

 

He changed course for the exit, refusing to stay here a second longer. It seemed NG had the same idea, as he quickly barrelled out of the East door like the hounds of hell were after him. Max nodded in greeting, shouldering open the door and wincing as the movement jostled his arm. NG met up with him, pushing the door open further and allowing Max to slip out. He was too tired and hurt to argue, instead just nodding again and exiting the restaurant. “Matt.” Max blinked, raising an eyebrow. “My name, it’s Matt.” Oh. That explains a lot.

 

Max smirked tiredly, trying to hide his pain behind bravado. “I’m still gonna keep calling you NG.” Matt spluttered, but Max just laughed him off. “The power shouldn’t bother you again, by the way. I fixed it,” he added. Matt nodded, still red-faced.

 

“Thanks. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going home and getting absolutely  _ plastered.”  _ Max snorted. He couldn’t blame the guy. He was personally gonna take some painkillers and smoke up on the roof until he stopped shaking.

 

“Fair enough. I’ll see you tomorrow, NG.”


	2. Night 2

When Max got to the parts and service room that night, he was greeted by a note taped to the door. He picked it up, curious.

 

_ ‘Mohr, _

 

_ Whatever you did last night made our electric bill shoot through the roof! Fix it, or you’re fired! _

 

 

  * __Brooks’__



 

 

Max rolled his eyes, scrunching the paper up in his fist. He tossed it in a nearby trash can, changing course to backstage. Manager wanted to throw a fit? Fine. He’d just make this the most efficiently run electrical system you’ve ever seen.

 

There’s no way he was leaving Matt to panic like that again though. Not to mention the fact that a timed limiter on the power was just ridiculous. Luckily, since he had no intentions of putting the limiter back  _ on,  _ he had some time to work properly without having to worry too much about Matt running out of power.

 

Just in case though, before the clock hit twelve, he hopped up on the stage and turned off the robots. No sense in worrying about them coming to life while he was trying to fix something. He glanced at the door off the side of the stage, the one labelled “Pirate’s Cove”, with a frown. The main three from the night before were off, but....he had a bad feeling that there was something he was missing. He didn’t want to waste time though, so rather than looking through Pirate’s Cove for something that might just be a product of his over-tired, under-medicated mind, he decided to set up a few...... _ precautions  _ instead.

 

Thinking quickly, as he only had about five minutes left, he dug through his toolbox for some spare wire. He quickly strung it up over the doorway, layering it low to the ground in order to trip up anything that might be trying to exit the cove. Hopefully that would give him enough warning so that he could get out of the way. 

 

With that taken care of, Max turned his attention to the electrical box. Now, with the overhead lights shining brightly, he could immediately see that the box had seen much better days. Wires were crossed and tangled, labels peeling and some sort of second layer was hiding under the first. If  _ this _ is what they were dealing with, it’s no wonder the electric bill was so high. He frowned, peering closer at the second layer.

 

It looked like an emergency backup grid, but why a children’s restaurant had one of those was beyond him. Max scowled to himself, grumbling under his breath about cheap managers and generator power. He refused to think about all the weird things going on here, knowing it’d just turn into a total clusterfuck he didn’t want anything to do with. Instead, he just popped another sucker and got to work.

 

\--

 

Max was startled out of his work when a loud crashing noise rang out , echoing off the walls of the dining room. He jumped, hitting his head on the top of the fusebox and cursing loudly. Any annoyance and/or fear was quickly forgotten when he realized just  _ what  _ had caused the noise. Lying on the ground in front of Pirate’s Cove, entangled in wires with scattered cans around it was a huge, ragged,  _ pirate fox.  _ Max gasped in delight, scrambling over to the fox. He had the presence of mind to press the shutdown switch, but as soon as that was done he started to untangle the fox. Matt rushed out from the security room, wielding a flashlight like a weapon. He skidded to a stop when he noticed Max crouched over the prone form of Foxy, confusion warring with terror on his features.

 

“Dude.....what are you  _ doing?” _ he asked. Max glanced at him, eyebrow raised as if to say  _ ‘The fuck do you  _ **_think_ ** _ I’m doing????’,  _ which Matt met with a grimace. “Fine, stupid question. Better question;  _ why  _ are you doing?! Don’t you remember these things trying to  _ kill us  _ last night?!” he asked, a little hysterical. Max rolled his eyes, tugging Foxy’s arm free from a coil of wire.

 

“Well yeah, but he’s off. I mean, come on NG,  _ pirate fox!  _ How cool is that?! Oh man I should’ve brought a camera, Nate would  _ love  _ this!” Max said giddily, glancing down at Foxy. He might’ve been imagining it, but he could’ve sworn there was a murderous glint in the fox’s eye. Honestly, that just made him cooler.

 

“You’re a cyborg but you don’t have a camera on you?” Matt asked incredulously, lowering the flashlight. Max snorted, yanking at a particularly stubborn bit of wire.

 

“Yeah? It’s a little hard to forget a whole arm, but it’s mostly because there’s not really much room for my Polaroid in my toolbox so....” Max shrugged, finally freeing Foxy. He rolled the fox over, shrugging off his sweater after the fox was situated face up. It was getting hot in here, and he wasn’t about to die of heatstroke in an air conditioned restaurant. “I’ll bring it tomorrow though, don’t worry. Now, I just gotta fix this guy up, at least mechanics-wise, and he might be able to start doing shows again soon! Not tomorrow, because he needs new fabric, but soon.” 

 

“Well......it’s like 5:30 now. I wouldn’t start on a new project right now, so do you want some help getting him back into Pirate’s Cove?” Matt asked awkwardly, nudging at Foxy’s body with his foot. Max swatted him away, standing up and cracking his spine.

 

“Actually, yeah. I don’t think I can lift him up on the stage by myself. Grab an arm?” Max asked. Matt nodded, bending over to grab an arm. Max rolled his eyes, nudging Matt gently. “You’re gonna fuck up your back if you do that. Lift with your legs, like this.” Max crouched down, grabbed Foxy’s arm, and pushed back up, grunting quietly as he did. The motors in his arm whirred in warning, and Max hissed at Matt. Matt quickly propped Foxy up, taking some of the weight off of Max. Together, they dragged him back to Pirate’s Cove, Foxy’s feet skidding on the tile. They shoved him up on stage, pushing him so he was lying on the floor. Matt closed the curtains and hoped nobody looked inside before Max could fix Foxy, while Max massaged his shoulder carefully. 

 

“Alright, that should do it. Do they automatically turn back on after the night shift?” Matt asked, glancing at Max. Max shrugged, rolling his shoulder.

 

“No clue, not my problem. Brooks said somethin’ about the servos locking up, but I strongly doubt that. If they did, Foxy wouldn’t have been able to move tonight after being off for so long.” Max sighed, heading back to the back room to grab his tools and clean up. “Heads up, I’m gonna be working on the animatronics tomorrow, so if you hear screaming it’s just me. Since I know you’re supposed to be guarding the place n’ all.” He tossed a casual wave over his shoulder, before leaving Matt to his own devices. Maybe tomorrow, he’d finally get a chance to figure out why the robots had murder on the brain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> things may not make sense just go with it  
> also my boy max is stronk bc metal is Heavy


	3. Night 3 (Part 1)

It was now night 3 of working at Freddy’s, and Max was starting to fall into a routine. He’d come home from school, sleep until around 6 pm, eat dinner, and then finish some homework before grabbing his tools for the walk to the pizzaria. Today, however, was different. Today, he didn’t have time for a nap.

 

Instead, he was heading off to the only craft store in town to pick up some orange felt, because today was the day he’d finally fix the robots. Or at the very least, get started on it. Luckily for his savings, he didn’t actually need much fabric to fix the tears in Foxy’s suit, though he did grab extra strength thread just in case. No sense in tempting fate if he didn’t have to.

 

All told, he managed to get everything finished right at 10, giving him two hours to kill before the start of his shift. Since he was already downtown, he didn’t really want to go back home just to have to leave again, so he headed for a park near Freddy’s instead. It was late enough that all the kids had gone home, but not so late that he ran the risk of getting murdered or being treated as someone who would be trying to _do_ the murder.

 

Max sighed, sitting heavily on a park bench. He pulled his cigarette pack out of the pocket of his jacket, lighting one and absently taking a drag. He exhaled slowly, watching as the smoke curled up into the night sky, coating the stars in a grey haze. His thoughts grew a bit fuzzy, the familiar rush of nicotine burning through his lungs. Almost on autopilot, he smoked until the cigarette burned down to the filter before stubbing it out on the ashtray attached to the bench.

 

He wasn’t quite sure how long he sat there, only that it wasn’t yet 11:45, since the alarm he’d set on his watch hadn’t gone off yet. His silence was interrupted by someone clearing their throat in his direction, followed by a bright flashlight beam shining at him and reflecting off the metal bench into his eyes. He hissed, throwing the hand not holding the cigarette up over his eyes to block the light, cursing under his breath. “Max, what the hell are you doing? Aren’t you a little young to be smoking?” a familiar voice asked, filled with more concern than he’d heard in  _ years. _

 

He blinked, shifting so he was out of the beam of light and sitting up. He hissed as he accidentally ashed on himself, quickly brushing it off before it burned through his jeans. “NG? What’re you doing here?” he asked, glancing at the cigarette to see if it was worth keeping it lit. Since over half remained, he decided to just keep it, instead of putting it out. He took another hit, watching Matt out of the corner of his eye. The nightguard gave him a pointed look, one Max returned by turning away and exhaling slowly. “You gonna sit down, or you gonna loom all night?” Max asked, glancing at his watch. They had about ten minutes before they had to go, especially if they wanted to shut down the animatronics before midnight. Matt glared down at him, unimpressed. Max just raised an eyebrow, a silent challenge in his eyes.

 

Finally, Matt caved, sitting on the bench next to Max after moving the JoAnn’s bag out of the way. “You never answered my question,” he pointed out. “Aren’t you too young to be smoking?” Max snorted, drumming his fingers on his thigh.

 

“Aren’t you a little too old to care?” he shot back. “Besides, I’m 17. Old enough to die, old enough to smoke, right?” He scoffed, flicking the ash off the end sharply. “It’s the only thing that calms my brain enough to let me sleep,” he added in a low murmur, not really meaning for it to be heard.

 

Luckily, either Matt truly  _ didn’t  _ hear him, or was just pretending not to, because he didn’t bring it up. Instead, he shrugged, conceding the point. “Don’t your parents care though?” he asked. Max choked on the smoke, coughing violently. He hadn’t been expecting  _ that,  _ and as a result was caught off guard mid-inhale. He wheezed, managing to get his breathing under control, before violently stubbing out the cigarette butt in the ashtray.

 

“Sorry NG, you’ll have to be at least a level 3 friend before you unlock  _ that  _ part of my backstory,” he muttered, words punctuated by the sharp beeping of his watch. Grateful for the distraction, he hopped up and turned off the alarm, avoiding eye contact. “It’s 11:45. We should go,” he muttered, grabbing the bag and power walking away. Not running. Running from confrontation made you a coward, power walking made you a survivor.

 

\--

 

Once Max got to Freddy’s, he did the rounds of shutting off all four animatronics before drawing back the curtains of Pirate’s Cove and clambering up onto the stage. He wasn’t able to move Foxy by himself, but with all the lights on he could see well enough. He set down his bag and his tools, pulling a camera out of his jacket pocket and taking a quick snap of Foxy. He waited for it to develop, flapping the resulting picture before tucking both it and the camera away in his pocket again. He took off the jacket, folding it and setting it nicely out of the way before putting in his headphones and getting to work.

 

Immediately, he could see a bunch of missing fuses through the rips in Foxy’s suit, as well as gunk on his visible eye. He carefully inspected the suit, finding a small button hidden on Foxy’s nose. When pressed, the lighter portion of his chest swung open, revealing several sparking fuse links and a dull metal skeleton. Max bit his lip, eyeing the fuse slots warily. He wasn’t sure if he’d have enough, but there might be extras in the back. Worst case scenario, he could hold off on Foxy and take a look at one of the others instead.

 

He sighed, removing the only fuse currently inside Foxy’s body and carefully setting it aside. There were four fuse links in total, each wired to a different part of the body. One was wired to the arms, one to the legs, one to the head, and one to the waist. Fairly simple set up, but he wondered how it was powered. Max frowned, pulling out a flashlight and clicking it on. Poking around a bit, he finally found a large power supply bank attached to two wires, one connected to the fuse network with the other exiting through a small hole in the back of Foxy’s suit. It was frayed at the ends, missing a plug and looking like a dog had used it for a chew toy. 

 

He groaned quietly, not looking forward to fixing that. Pulling out of Foxy’s stomach, he took a look around the stage area. He found a socket in the ground, a NEMA 5-20 one, painted brown to match the stage floor. That’d be a little difficult to find a plug for, but not impossible. Unfortunately, it seemed like Foxy would be a multi-day project, but at least he could fix the fuses and the suit tonight.

 

He sighed quietly, stretching before going back to the tool box. He rummaged through the box, pulling out a handful of fuses and comparing them to the one he’d pulled out of Foxy’s chest. Seeing that they were the same type, he set them aside and pulled out a roll of electrical tape. Before plugging in the fuses, he wrapped the end of the power wire in tape to seal off the sparking ends, not wanting to accidentally cause a fire. That done, he took a quick break to drink some water and pop a sucker in his mouth before picking up the fuses again. He gently started plugging them into the fuse links, sighing in relief when nothing exploded. Now all he had to do was repair the tears in Foxy’s suit, and he’d be done for now, at least until Max could replace the power plug.

 

He frowned, a sudden thought tickling at the back of his mind. If Foxy’s plug was ruined and the fuses were missing......how had the fox been able to get out of Pirate’s Cove last night?

 

Suddenly wary, he looked up at Foxy. The single yellow eye seemed to gleam with malevolence, and Max felt a shiver run down his spine. Suddenly, it didn’t seem like such a good idea to be up on stage with the fox.

 

Carefully, he started backing away, never once taking his eyes off Foxy. Unbidden, memories of Bonnie trying desperately to kill him the first night rose to the forefront of his mind, making his hands clammy with fear. He slipped down off the stage clumsily, legs swinging frantically for a second before finding solid ground below the tips of his toes. He lowered himself to the ground, wincing at the dull clanging his arm made against the hollow wood of the stage. Foxy seemed to follow him with his eyes, causing Max to move just that much quicker.

 

The staredown was broken by a loud squeaking noise, coupled with rolling wheels. Max blinked, glancing behind him before quickly turning his attention back to Foxy. Did his head move? Max swallowed thickly, unsure if what he saw was real. “Max? Why are you having a staring contest with Foxy?” Max almost jumped out of his skin when he heard Matt’s voice, just barely resisting the urge to look back.

 

“I replaced his fuses and did a small patch job on the power wire. It was all frayed, and he was missing three out of four fuses, with the fourth burnt out. By all rights, he shouldn’t be able to move, not until I fix the power bank,” Max explained. Matt made a questioning noise behind him.

 

“So......that’s good, right? Plus, you turn all the robots off whenever you get here, so what’s the problem?” he asked. Max snorted, ignoring his watering eyes.

 

“NG, I just did all that  _ tonight.  _ But yesterday, when I found Foxy? It’s because he rushed out of Pirate’s Cove and tripped over my alert wire.” The silence behind him felt heavy, and he could hear the chair squeaking at Matt got up. “Matt....There’s something weird going on here. I think I’ll need to ask someone about this, because there’s no way that a normal robot could’ve done that. Murder program or not, machines need power to run.”

 

_ “Aww, I’d really hoped it’d take ‘im longer!”  _ whined a young, cutesy voice. Max froze, breath catching in his throat. He heard the faint squeaking from next to him, indicating Matt was doing something with his chair, but refused to take his eyes off Foxy to look.

 

_ “Please, the kid’s smart. You know it wouldn’t have taken him more than a week.”  _ A different voice this time, slightly lower, but still young-sounding. Max’s curiosity warred with his fear, wondering just who the hell was speaking. There shouldn’t be anyone other than him and Matt in the restaurant, right? He checked the clock. 3 am. Definitely too early for the day crew, and the voices sounded too much like kids besides.

 

“Uh, hey, Matt? Who’s.....who’s behind us?” he asked, still not taking his eyes off Foxy. It was probably stupid, but he felt like if he even so much as blinked, the fox would come for his head.

 

“It, um.....It’s Bonnie.....a-and Chica,” Matt muttered, sounding as terrified as Max felt. Max swore violently, feeling his heart leap up into his throat. He slipped his pocketknife out of his jeans with shaking fingers, knowing it wouldn’t do much but feeling better protected anyway, just having it in his hand.

 

“Fuckin’ figures......well, I don’t wanna die today. Any ideas on how to get outta here?” he asked, somehow sounding way more confident than he felt.

 

A third voice spoke then, cutting Matt off before he could even start to think. This one was lower than both the other two, definitely belonging to someone who’d at least hit puberty.  _ “Don’t worry Cyborg, you’re fine. You might work here, but you ain’t a  _ **_nightguard,_ ** _ ”  _ the voice said, spitting out the word ‘nightguard’ like it tasted of something foul. Matt stiffened beside him, whimpering slightly in fear.  _ “Purple guy, on the other hand.....”  _ The voice shifted into something more malevolent.  _ “He better start running.” _

 

Max held up his hands in a time-out pose, carefully nudging Matt back towards the wall, so he was sandwiched between the wall and Max. “Hold on, time out. Nobody is running anywhere, especially not any of you. Now, I dunno what kinda ghosts y’all are, but it must’ve taken you this whole time just to get here, into Pirate’s Cove. Barring Foxy, of course. But see, your threats are empty. Yeah, there’s some supernatural bullshit going on, but you’re forgetting something.” He grinned sharply, eyes glinting in the light of the dingy fluorescent bulbs. “I turned off every single robot, and if anything less delicate than a human hand touches the shutdown button, it’ll break and put you out of commission.  _ Permanently.”  _ He backed up towards the wall, keeping an eye on all three animatronics. “So why don’t we all calm down, and talk this out?”

 

“Max, what’re you  _ doing?!”  _ Matt hissed, but Max waved him off. He couldn’t afford to make any mistakes, and if they called his bluff somehow then they were  _ both  _ dead.

“First question; why do you wanna kill Matt?” he asked. Chica turned her head towards him, the slow creaking of metal echoing loudly in the otherwise silent room.

 

_ “He’s a night guard,”  _ she said, the ‘duh’ unvoiced but evident.  _ “We don’t want any more us-es, so we gotta get rid of the night guards so nobody else dies,” _ she added. Max furrowed his brow, confused.

 

“Wait, so y’all were all killed by some old nightguard, then decided to, what, kill every single night guard afterwards in order to protect people? Then, what about the night guards that  _ don’t  _ wanna kill anyone, or the ones just trying to make an honest living?” he asked. “Newsflash Chickadee, the dude who did all that is already in prison. He’s already getting his comeuppance, and this NG-icide isn’t doing anybody any favors. All you’re doing is making this place  _ more  _ dangerous.”

 

_ “The hell you mean by that?! We’re doing everyone a  _ **_favor!_ ** _ Don’t say we’re making everything worse, you’re  _ **_lying!”_ ** raged the third voice, probably Foxy’s. Max snorted, glancing back at him. 

 

“No, you’re not. This place is a shithole, because nobody wants to come here anymore due to all the ‘mysterious deaths’. Night guards keep going missing, every single one of ya has a funky stench about you, and if the company has to keep spending money on legal fees then there’s nothing left over for the actual  _ pizzaria!  _ Face it, y’all are running this place into the ground, and soon nobody’s gonna come back and you’re all gonna be scrapped and alone forever, stuck because you can’t get your damn heads outta your asses!” he snapped, finally losing his temper. He whirled around, ignoring the way Matt flinched back in surprise. “You plan on killin’ anyone?” he snapped. Matt quickly shook his head in the negative, wide-eyed and shaking. “Good, then that makes two outta six!” He turned back to the animatronics, eyes burning with anger. “Neither of us wanna kill anyone, so now it’s up to you! Keep killing people like mindless animals, or get over yourselves?!”

 

The room was silent, but Max swore he could hear his own thundering heartbeat echoing off the walls. He’d never admit it, but he was  _ terrified.  _ Bullies he could handle. Giant robots that could crush him without much effort?  _ No thanks. _ He was taking a massive risk, and he could only hope that the ghosts would calm down.

 

One beat.

Two.

 

Finally, after too long, Chica spoke.  _ “We’re.....hurting people.....?”  _ She sounded devastated.  _ “I didn’t wanna hurt anyone, I just.....I was so angry....”  _ she said, sounding close to tears. It was kind of unnerving actually, seeing the grinning visage of the chicken-shaped robot but hearing the tearful voice of a young girl. It was made even more strange when she suddenly pawed at her eyes with the hand not holding the demonic-looking cupcake, pantomiming wiping away tears. Max swallowed thickly, tearing his eyes away from the disturbing sight, only to have his gaze land on Foxy.

 

The fox was glaring at him through one narrowed eye, like he was considering something. Before he could speak, Bonnie interrupted.  _ “I don’t trust you,”  _ he said simply.  _ “I don’t trust you, because you’ve already hurt me.”  _ Max frowned in confusion, before realization struck.

 

The first night. The fuse box. The  _ screwdriver. _

 

He swallowed again, trying to keep the fear from showing on his face. He must’ve failed, because Bonnie was eyeing him consideringly.  _ “You hurt me, but......I tried to hurt you first. I guess we’re even. Besides, your whole ‘thing’ is to fix us, right?”  _ Max nodded mutely.  _ “Then, we’re even. For now,”  _ Bonnie warned, glaring at him.  _ “You do anything like that again, and I’ll pop your skull like a grape, got it?” _

 

Max nodded quickly, feeling a bit like a bobblehead. Bonnie stopped glaring, which was as close to a smile as he could get, considering the whole  _ murderbot _ thing. Max turned to Foxy, who was watching them sullenly.  _ “.......You fixed me. Not only that, but I see that fabric in your bag. You were gonna fix the rips in my suit, right?”  _ he asked. Max nodded, more cautiously this time.  _ “And I saw how excited you were yesterday, after tripping me up. You genuinely want to help us, huh?”  _ Max nodded again.  _ “Then, I can’t be that mad. You’re just trying to help, so I’ll trust you. If  _ **_he,”_ ** Foxy glanced towards Matt,  _ “screws up though, I’m gonna kill him myself, got it?”  _ Max bit his lip and glanced at Matt, who held up a shaky thumbs up and squeaked out something that sounded like an agreement.

 

_ “This is great and all, but......what’re we gonna tell Alex?”  _ Bonnie interrupted. Max frowned, mouthing  _ ‘Alex?’  _ to himself, before freezing at the sound of a quiet music box from the doorway.  _ “Oh, nevermind. He’s here already,”  _ Bonnie added. Max glanced at the door, eyes widening when he saw Freddy. Or......Alex? He wasn’t sure anymore.

 

_ “Tell me what, Ben?” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was gonna do night 3 as one whole chapter but it got _so long....._ so it's split into two chapters now.
> 
> alex and ben, huh? wonder what's going on with that? :3c
> 
> also, do y'all want me to post refs for max and matt? i have them, i just wasn't sure if i should post them or not, there's not really a good spot to slip em in. leave a comment and let me know! or don't, i'm not your mom.
> 
> also also the screwdriver thing, if you don't remember. on night one, when the power was still timed and max was trying to fix it, he got cornered at the fuse box by bonnie. bonnie had him pinned against the wall and was going to kill him, but max stabbed him in the wrist joint with his screwdriver, wedging it in there and giving himself a chance to escape and shut down bonnie.


	4. Night 3 (Part 2)

In the doorway, eyes narrowed, stood Freddy Fazbear himself. He had his arms crossed, imposing figure nonetheless diminished slightly just because of the soft notes of Toredor’s March drifting from the music box in his chest.  _ “Ben? Susie? Jon? Anyone wanna tell me what’s going on?”  _ he prompted, taking a step forward. Matt squeaked quietly in fear, and Max tensed slightly, shifting slightly as if his body could protect  _ anyone.  _

 

Bonnie stepped forward, drumming his fingers gently on the neck of his guitar, deftly avoiding the buttons that actually made noise.  _ “Yeah, sure. Okay, so short version? This kid here, Purple Hair......Max I think? Anyway, Management hired him to fix things ‘round here. First night, when the power went out, you nearly had the new nightguard but Max shut you off, before going around turning  _ **_all_ ** _ of us off like some kinda cyborg ninja,”  _ Bonnie started. Freddy nodded, waving him on.  _ “Right, you knew that. Anyway, for some reason he’s nutso enough to come  _ **_back_ ** _ the next day after almost dying, but as you also know, he turned off the bots before midnight, so we couldn’t move. Except, he didn’t know about Foxy, so once midnight hit Jon tried to rush ‘im. Clever, but not clever enough to avoid the massive  _ **_tripwire_ ** _ over the doorway.”  _ Here, Bonnie shot Foxy a glare, one happily returned.  _ “Max turned him off too and dragged him back to the Cove, before leaving again. Third day, today, he was apparently gonna start on fixing up the bots, but then he realized somehow that even though Foxy was out of order, there was something up because he ran out of the Cove the night before. We had a standoff, explained some things, and came to an understanding. Then, you showed up,”  _ Bonnie finished.

 

Before Freddy could speak, Max raised a hand like he was still in class. Bonnie blinked, glancing back at him. “Yeah uh, quick question before you go on?” he asked. Bonnie nodded. “Why’d you say ‘the bots’ and ‘Foxy’ like they’re separate? I’m not trying to be rude, just confused,” he added quickly, trying to stave off any accusations before they started.

 

_ “It’s something we came up with to try and keep our minds.”  _ Max blinked, swiveling to stare at Freddy.  _ “We were human, once. The animatronics were just that, animatronics. Then our souls got melded with them somehow, so in essence we were one being. We can’t control what our bodies do during the day though, that’s all the programming. At night, we get more movement, more  _ **_freedom._ ** _ So, we decided actions taken during the day, or at least before midnight when free roam mode turns on, that’s the animatronics. At night? That’s us, that’s what  _ **_we_ ** _ want to do. So when you disconnected the power before midnight, you shut the bots off. When you did it after midnight, that first night? You shut  _ **_us_ ** _ off. Following?”  _ Freddy asked, sounding exasperated about something. Probably the fact that Max didn’t already  _ know  _ this. Childish, but then again, they all sounded pre-pubescent, so he couldn't get  _ too  _ mad. Max nodded, relaxing a bit. 

 

“Alright, so.....one more question. Are y’all still gonna let me do what I need to do? I need to turn off the power to the suits when I’m working, just so I don’t get hurt by stray electricity. I don’t want to like, force you immobile, but I also don’t wanna end up in the hospital because of a preventable mistake, you feel me?” he asked. 

 

Foxy..... _ Jon,  _ cut in before Alex could answer.  _ “I dunno about the rest of ya, but I’m fine with it! I wanna be able to move around again, it takes way too much time to get moving! I wanna run!”  _ he yelled, twitching slightly. Maybe he wanted to jump around, but couldn’t? The power supply  _ was  _ missing, after all. One by one, the others agreed, with varying levels of hesitance. 

 

“Okay, good to know. I.....I think I’m out of time soon, so I can’t get those rips fixed tonight Jon, sorry,” Max apologized. He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Matt had quietly wheeled his way out of the stage room, shooting him an apologetic look before rolling on down the hallway. Max wasn’t upset, Matt also had a job to do that  _ didn’t  _ involve talking down murderous eleven-year-olds. “Tomorrow, I’ll try and make a power supply for you after I get back from school. The homework’s just stupid busywork anyway, so I don't really give a shhhah....crap about it. I’d drop out if Mom wouldn’t gut me for it....” he said, muttering the last sentence under his breath. God....he was gonna have to clean up his language, huh? Couldn’t be cussing in front of the impressionable child robots, could he? His fingers twitched, and he quickly pulled out another sucker, realizing the one he’d had in his mouth before had fallen out at some point. 

 

Jon vibrated angrily, but relaxed a moment later, nodding roughly, looking as forlorn as a robotic fox was able to look.  _ “Yeah, alright. We better be getting’ back into place then. Mind turning the power back on? Even a little juice is better than none,”  _ he said. Max nodded, going around the circle and turning on all the bots again. Almost immediately, they looked less stiff, like their joints had all locked up and only now could they move freely. With a pang of guilt, he realized this was  _ exactly  _ what had happened. 

 

One by one, the robots shuffled out of the room, heading back to their places before opening. Max quickly looked around for his scattered stuff, forgotten in his mad dash to get away from Jon before he got killed. He found his walkman dropped carelessly under one of the long party tables, wire twisted around one of the chair legs. His jacket was thankfully where he’d left it, the worn fabric only slightly scuffed from its stint on the floor. The craft store bag, he just moved to the Parts and Service room. Nobody went in there, so it should be safe. It’d be just his luck if it got stolen, but hopefully people weren’t so hard up as to steal  _ orange felt  _ from a  _ pizzeria.  _

 

That done, he checked his watch. 5:52. Just enough time to check in on Matt. He headed to the security office, knocking gently against the doorframe. Matt looked up from his screens with a questioning look, and since of course Max couldn’t ever interact like a normal fucking human, he went for dry humor. “Too spooked to stay, NG?”

 

Matt scoffed, a half-offended noise that jumped the line between ‘slightly annoyed’ and nosedived straight into ‘Done With Your Shit (tm)’. Max bit back a wince. Yeah, he probably deserved that one. “Anyone sane  _ would  _ be, surrounded by robots that want to  _ kill  _ you,” he snapped, glaring at Max before pointedly turning back to the cameras.

 

“Yeah, that’s.....that’s fair. Sorry for dragging you into that mess....” Max forced out. He gripped his arm tightly, cool metal leaving harsh imprints in his skin that were sure to bruise. “They all went back to their spots, so there won’t be any more holdups. I’m....gonna go home. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he muttered, turning to leave. Matt didn’t reply, and Max didn’t wait around for one. He grabbed his tools from the Parts and Service room and headed out, already sliding a cigarette out of the slightly crushed package in his pocket. Today had more emotions than any day had any business having, and he still had to go to  _ school.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoop boop here's the rest of it  
> i realize now i could've put this in the last chapter without it being too much but ehhh......im lazy.
> 
> goodnight everybody i'm Tired (tm)


End file.
